What to saw furniture board without chipping. Sawing Laminated chipboard at home. Choice of circular saw blades and saw blades
And you will also need additional tools for sawing:
Cutting Laminated Chipboard is done in the following order:
- Marking the cut. To mark out the workpieces, a ruler and a pencil are needed to mark dots on the end face of the board. Then the dots need to be evenly spliced into one trimmer line and put painter’s tape on top. A good way to saw Laminated chipboard without chipping is by using tape, t. к. it helps reduce the number of cracks in the sheet material that occur due to increased temperature and high pressure. Sawing Laminated chipboard.
- Sawing is then performed Laminated chipboard. Choose how to cut the chipboard, and place the tool at the desired angle so that the cut edges of the sheet are straight. Sawing laminated chipboard and chipboard should be done as gently and as smoothly as possible.
- Board processing. If the sawn particleboard at home is uneven on the cut faces, it is machined with a belt sander. In some cases, it is better to immediately contact a company that provides services for the production of furniture parts to order by the size of the customer and sawing Laminated chipboard on special equipment. To veneer the edge of the parts, a special veneering edgebanding is used for processing.
Precision and quality
The panel cutting machines for sawing Laminated chipboard and particleboard have a high cutting quality which helps to reduce the costs for subsequent cut processing (sanding, deburring, chipping and so on). That’s why it can make cuts of any complexity and configuration. which means almost unlimited possibilities in furniture production. Fancy children’s furniture, comfortable computer desk tops, curved carvings in the doors of kitchen fronts. all this is possible with the machines.
There are two types of panel cutting machines:
- Vertical machines are solid vibration-resistant welded frames positioned vertically at 50° to the rear with rails on top and bottom, on which the saw-bar runs. It is a bracket for the saw unit, which moves down and up along the beam, and also rotates 90°, which allows both vertical and horizontal cuts. The precision of the cut is amazing. For sawing laminated chipboard, as well as hard, corrugated or porous boards, a special scoring unit is used. The saw speed reaches 15,000 rpm;
- Horizontal saws consisting of a table for the panel, a carriage to move the saw along the sawing mechanism and the sawing mechanism itself consisting of one or two cutting units. The cutting units themselves are equipped with a main saw and a scoring saw. The principle is simple: the main saw cuts deep into the chipboard and the scoring saw finishes the bottom edge (veneer or laminate surface) accurately and precisely. The saw unit can also be tilted up to 45°.
The mitre saw is a home-made, highly reduced-sized copy of a horizontal machine. It cannot cut a wide sheet of particleboard or laminated chipboard, but it can cut many smaller parts.
How to saw chipboard without splitting
In order to saw off evenly and without chipping Woodchipboard at home, you need to know some tricks. Without any doubt, it is better if you will be sawing with an electric jigsaw. Of course you can saw with a hacksaw also, but the result is unlikely to please you, although it is possible to saw chipboard for various purposes where the quality of the cut does not play any role. And that’s it, we want a good, straight cut. For this we take an electric jigsaw, a ruler, a tape measure and an angle piece for a right angle (if it is necessary), an awl or a sharp object with which to trace the line for the trimmer on the laminate on the chipboard. We measure off a part that will be sawed off with 1-2 mm reserve on the subsequent adjustment and attach a ruler, on it we spend an awl or a sharp object of a fishing line for a saw cut, try to press harder to cut through a laminate, and we saw along the line not along the line, but exactly along, only catching it the edge of the saw.
Then with coarse sandpaper bring the edges of our saw cut to the right condition, and if you are not satisfied with the quality of the sawn end, we take a wax chalk in the desired color.е. in the color of particle board and fill in the chips. Let’s talk about jigsaws, I personally use BOSSNevski.
If you need to saw without chipping only one side, you can use saws as a tooth up and down, I use small saws with a straight tooth they shear less and cut both sides pretty decent. It will be more convenient to mill the beveled end with sandpaper if you stretch it on a flat bar. Furniture wax crayons and markers you can buy in furniture stores where they sell fittings. If you can’t find the chalk in the color you want. No problem, you can make it from several others by mixing it like paints. Simply melt crayons with a candle and drop on a plate, one color on it another, then roll into one and rub the edges with chips, remove the excess with a ruler or knife and polish rag gently, strongly press no need.
Rules of a safe usage of an electric circular saw
When buying this power tool, you should also pay attention to the safety criterion. Absolutely all conscientious manufacturers of such equipment “swaddle” the cutting disk with a protective cover that can prevent the fingers, gloves parts or other materials from getting under the cutting device and save the health of its owner
The guard always covers the upper part of the disk facing the face of the person working with the circular saw, and the lower part is “exposed” only during the actual sawing.
The first quality of protection will also be able to protect a person’s face, body and other parts of the face from being chipped.
Another safety measure is to protect the device from accidental activation. Only after the start button is pressed along with the deactivation of this option will the saw start working.
You should not be afraid and jamming circular saw, as almost all modern manufacturers in their equipment provided for such a possibility, when the cutting disc stops rotating, but the motor does not turn off, after which the saw can be removed from the problem area sawing and start working again.
Sawing methods Laminated chipboard
Sawing can be done on a panel saw. But its If you need to saw Laminated chipboard to make a few pieces of furniture for yourself, other methods are more suitable.
Scratch
Use an awl or a nail to puncture the trimmer’s scribing line with a ruler to the thickness of the laminate surface. Saw along this line, making sure that the edges of the saw’s teeth are exactly in the scratch. Sawing can be done with a jigsaw or a hand hacksaw.
Jigsaw
Suitable for cutting short distances. The saw should be with the smallest size of teeth. Move the jigsaw smoothly, without pressure, set the RPM just above the average.
On the side where the teeth are inserted into the board, there are very few signs of splintering. On the opposite side, if you are not very experienced, only a few signs appear.
Circular saw
You will need a disk for a saw with fine teeth. With this method, long straight cuts will be more successful than when sawing with a jigsaw. No splintering will occur on the side where the teeth cut into the board. If they appear, it will be on the opposite side, just like with the jigsaw.
The use of guide rails increases the accuracy of the cut. It is better to clamp the saw to the table.
Trimming and sawing
A large ruler (guide rail) is needed, which is clamped to the workpiece. The first cut is made to undercut the laminate along the marked line. The bar must be set on the line, and the cut to a depth of 6-10 mm. there will be no chips.
The second cut is through. There will be no splinters on the line of entry of the teeth into the board, and at the exit point the laminate has already been cut, so they just can’t be.
Router
In this case, you should first saw the workpiece with a jigsaw, stepping back from the marking line by 2-3 mm, and then align the trimmer line on the template. Cutters with a bearing. With this method you can also cut curvilinear.
How to saw laminated chipboard without splitting.
Before we start talking about sawing laminated chipboard without chips and deciding what to saw with, let’s define what it means to saw without chips? Everyone has his own attitude towards the number of chips after sawing, some people need only one, and others just need a dozen. So let’s look at not just one, but three types of home cutting Laminated chipboard, from which you can choose the most appropriate one. For obvious reasons we will not consider the use of expensive equipment designed for sawing laminated chipboard, this is the province of professionals. We are still amateur furniture makers, so we are going to use the appropriate tool.In the photo three parts, the upper was sawn with an electric jigsaw, the middle one with a hand circular saw (parquet), and the lower one was sawn also with a hand circular saw, but then processed by a hand router. Of course, in each case you can achieve different results, it’s all about experience and skill. But in general, the capabilities of the equipment in question produce results similar to these for chips in laminated chipboard.
In this case three things allow you to get a more or less good sawing result.
- Guide. It is not worth getting creative with the electric jigsaw guide. A simple spirit level and two wire clamps will do.
- Choice of jigsaw file for laminate Particle board. The saw unit cuts the laminate and the particle board itself with its teeth, so the finer the tooth, the finer the splintering. And the cutting speed is appropriate. The direction of the tooth upwards or downwards indicates only which side of the workpiece will have more chipping, the first from the top and the second from the bottom.
- Controlling the sawing speed. If you feed the jigsaw too tightly, the saw will bend and move aside the kerf, and the kerf will not be perpendicular to the workpiece’s plane. After such sawing there is no point in dreaming about gluing the edge.
Now let’s consider whether it is worth “scratching” the laminate layer. It may help, but only if the following conditions are met. As it is not only on these layers that the saw chops, but also on the outermost layers of the chipboard, it is necessary to chop them too. Width of “scratched” line has to correspond to the thickness of the saw (if you make it narrower you will cut, if you make it wider you will leave a trace on the piece). Lines must be strictly above each other and you must saw strictly along the line. Think about how realistic it is to do it at home with your own hands, and the answer about “scratching” will be obvious.
Sawing laminated chipboard with a parquet saw.
Chips are here caused by the cutting teeth, but not only in the direction of the kerf, but also on the opposite side. (Vibration of the power tool does not allow to lead a parquet block ideally straight, that is why the disk tilts relatively to the kerf). The guide not only allows you to saw the particleboard precisely, but also prevents chips on the opposite side from the sawing direction. When choosing a disk for sawing laminated chipboard, pay attention to the number of teeth, the more teeth, the cleaner the cut.
Before processing furniture parts with a router, it is necessary to saw them with a reserve of 3-5 millimeters from each processed side. Unlike the previous sawing methods, the hand-held tool leaves behind a perfect cut surface. Chipping after such treatment is rare and it turns out to keep perpendicularity of the cut. So far we have considered only straight-line sawing, but when it comes to sawing various kinds of circles and roundings, there is no alternative to the jigsaw and router. The disadvantage of using a router can be attributed to the need for skills to work with it. We will talk about them in other articles.
Cutting rules
Laminated Particle board is made from waste from hardwood and softwood lumber, while the board is lightweight and used for the manufacture of furniture structures. Most home furniture makers prefer laminated chipboard when choosing raw materials for making furniture. This material is relatively inexpensive, and retailers always have a wide variety of colors and textures to choose from. The difficulty in working with laminated chipboard is that it is very difficult to saw off part of the sheet of the desired size due to the fact that the fragile laminated layer creates cracks and chips in the place of sawing. To cope with this task helps to know some of the techniques used in the work.
To cut a laminated chipboard, we need a saw with fine serrations.
The shallower and more frequently arranged on the tool blade the cleaner and smoother the cut of the laminated material will be.
For the accurate and quality performance of sawing work it is necessary to act in a certain sequence.
- On a sheet of Laminated chipboard it is necessary to mark out a line for trimmer sawing, where a paper adhesive strip is tightly glued. The tape will not allow the teeth of the saw to break the lamination layer during the sawing process.
- Using an awl or the blade of a knife a groove with a recess is made along the cutting line. We cut through the thin laminate beforehand, which makes it easier to do the sawing work. Moving along this groove the blade of the sawing tool will move tangentially, cutting deep layers of chipboard material.
- When making a cut, it is recommended to keep the saw blade at an acute angle relative to the working plane of the board.
- If the work on sawing will be performed using an electric tool, the feed rate of the cutting blade should be minimal, so that the saw can not vibrate and bend.
- After sawing is done, the cut of the workpiece should be treated first with a file, and then with the use of emery paper. The cut should be processed with movements from the center to the edge of the workpiece.
To protect the place of the cut on the workpiece from further appearance of chips or cracks, it is closed by applying melamine adhesive tape, or fix the end edges, which may have a T-shaped or C-shaped appearance.
After such a decorative masking not only improves the appearance of the board, but also increases the service life of the material.
Materials and tools
In the conditions of a woodworking plant for sawing laminated chipboard is used special equipment, which is called a squaring and cutting machine. Some private furniture workshops purchase such a machine, but it is hardly advisable to install it at home due to the high cost. Such equipment can be replaced by home electric tools. sawing chipboard can be done with a circular saw or a hacksaw. The sawing process will take quite a lot of time and effort, but from an economic point of view, it is well worth it.
Electric jigsaw
In order to make an even cut without damaging the laminate layer it is necessary to take a jigsaw blade with the smallest tooth size. It is advisable to use an electric jigsaw for sawing small areas Laminated chipboard. Jerking and excessive pressure while working should be avoided. The cutting blade feed speed of the tool should be chosen as minimal as possible.
This device is perfectly suited to making an even and qualitative cut without chipping of the laminate surface.
Hand saw
This hand-held tool is used in combination with a metal blade because it has the finest teeth. Before you start cutting, put a piece of adhesive tape on the place where you sawed the material to protect the laminate from damage. The hand hacksaw blade should be held at an angle of 30-35°, this position reduces the likelihood of chipping on the material. The movements of the hacksaw blade should be smooth, without tensioning the blade.
After the cut is made, the edges of the cut is required to process with a file and fine sandpaper.
Circular saw
This power tool consists of a small work table and a rotating toothed blade. A circular saw makes a faster and better cut on a chipboard panel than an electric jigsaw. During the sawing process, the saw should be run at low rpm. Chips in this case can appear on the opposite side from the teeth of the saw.
To prevent this situation a paper tape is glued to the kerf before starting the sawing process.
Electric cutter
This is a handheld type of power tool used for sawing and drilling wood panel. Before you start working in Laminated chipboard, use a hand jigsaw to make a small kerf, 3-4 mm from the outline of the marking. Several blades of the cutter and its bearing device are used in the sawing process to adjust the depth of cut. Using a router is not easy, so you need to have some skill with this tool in order to saw the board. Cutter movement is quite fast and it is possible to make an uneven cut.
But with the help of a cutter you can get a perfectly smooth cut of the material. the appearance of chips and cracks when using this device is very rare.
The hand-held tool is suitable for single pieces of laminated chipboard. For mass production, it makes sense to purchase panel sizing equipment.
Why chips appear
Before you cut Laminated Chipboard or Laminate with an jigsaw, it is best to understand why chips occur when you are sawing sheet metal. The answer is simple: it all lies in the design of the jigsaw, or rather in the design of the file.
So, in the process of cutting the file receives reciprocal movements (up and down). And if the saw moves in the direction of the teeth (usually downward), there are almost no splinters, when the tool moves in the opposite direction, the teeth seem to tear out the upper layer of the material, thereby forming an unpleasant splinter. This is why you can observe a nearly perfect cut on the underside of Laminated chipboard and a splinter cut on its upper edge.
Ways to minimize chips
Additional cause of splintering could be a tooth bending of the file. Therefore first of all it is necessary to take care about acquisition of the tool with straight cut (often it is Bosh saws). However, it should be taken into account that with prolonged work, such saws overheat and may even bend in the process of cutting. This is why it is necessary to take breaks to allow the cutting tool to cool down.
However, one saw blade replacement is not enough, and in order to cut laminated woodchip board (laminate) with an electric jigsaw without chipping it is necessary to do some fine-tuning of the power tool. Namely, to make it so that when the saw moves against the inclination of the tooth, the material does not tear out. For this purpose it is enough to make a thrust pad. Such a conclusion can be drawn by trying to cut through two sheets of laminated chipboard at the same time. So on the lower element there will be almost no chips.
In order to make a landing pad for the jigsaw, it is enough to saw a rectangle of any solid material (for example, laminate) with dimensions identical to those of the base of the electric tool.
Then make a notch along the larger centerline and secure the resulting tooling to the sole of the jigsaw with insulation tape or double-sided adhesive tape. Finishing is now complete and you can start the finishing work after observing certain recommendations.
Tools and materials
If possible, it is best to cut the chipboard with a hand-held cutter, using homemade guides. This method is not very convenient when cutting large sheets, because when working with this tool requires a table. Also, you frequently have to change cutters with this method. But as a result you get a cleanly finished, “bored” edges.
The electric jigsaw is the most popular tool for cutting chipboard
Some craftsmen use an electric jigsaw, but if they have no skill, it is difficult to cut evenly, and splinters can form.
you can try mounting a bimetal blade with inwardly sharpened teeth, designed for laminate, on the jigsaw. Make a saw with an electric jigsaw should increase the speed, with a small feed, so that no breaks are formed.
If such methods do not suit you, then to perform the sawing of particle board at home, let’s prepare for work:
- A fine-toothed hacksaw (preferably one designed for metal work). In this case, the teeth should be set to 1/2 of the thickness of the blade and be hardened;
- paper adhesive tape;
- file for roughing the cut line;
- sandpaper to finish the cut line.
How to saw chipboard without splitting?
Before you start sawing Particle board, especially laminated, cut through with a sharp tool the fishing line for the trimmer, on which we will saw and glue a paper tape with a sticky layer along it. This helps to minimize damage to the decorative layer Particleboard.
To have as few chips as possible, it is necessary to direct the movement of the jigsaw at an acute angle to the surface (not more than 30°). The movements should be smooth, without excessive pressure on the plate and sharp jerks.
If, however, chips can not be avoided, first process the saw cut, working in the direction of the edges to the center, and then a fine grit emery cloth. You can also camouflage any imperfections by using a flexible profile, where possible.
Milling cutter
Milling machine allows to get the cleanest edge of the workpiece, the quality will not be so easy to distinguish from the planer, and sometimes it will be even better.
To begin with, you need to saw the workpiece with a jigsaw, making a 2-3 mm indentation from the marking line, then make a line alignment according to the template. Usually a second piece of Laminated chipboard is used for this, sawed on a formatting machine, so that it is the right size.
It is necessary to use a copying cutter, that is, one that has a bearing. You can get a very clean cut that way. Among the disadvantages of working with a router, you can allocate a lot of hassle, as there is a need for accurate marking, pre-sawing of workpieces and in setting templates for the router.
To sum up
If you faced the question of sawing the countertop, then you should not be afraid, because it is quite possible to do it yourself. If there is a possibility, it is better, of course, to use the services of professionals and take the material for processing to the workshop, where all work will be carried out on special equipment and of particular quality.
In the case of sawing a tabletop at home, so that there are no chips, use a suitable tool. a jigsaw, adhering to the maximum accuracy and precision when working with the workpiece.